Mataró Museum

The Museum of Mataró is a hereditary institution dedicated to the safeguard, study, conservation, research and dissemination of the museum collections of Mataró. It consists of a main building at Can Serra and three additional sites: The Ca l’Arenas, Centre d’Art del Museu de Mataró and Clos Arqueològic de Torre Llauder, containing the remains of one of the most remarkable villas, and Can Marfà Gènere de Punt, where the main theme of the Mataró museum is carried out. Entitled “Mataró, capital del gènere de punt” (Mataró, Capital of Knitted Fabrics), it includes a collection of machinery, objects and documents related to knitted fabrics which the Jaume Vilaseca Foundation donated to the city.

The museum was created in 1894, after the Artistic-Archaeological Association of Mataró began to lobby for a museum in 1888. In 1915, the town council purchased Can Serra and donated it to the museum, which was opened in 1942. The first restoration of the building began around the same time. With the passing of the years, the museum's collection has grown with personal deposits and donations and especially thanks to the archaeological material recovered from the dig sites. This caused the museum to need an additional building for its collections in 1976. In 1982, an agreement signed between the town council and the Catalan government turned the museum into the new headquarters of the Maresme County Council, which reopened in 1983 after the building was restored. Since 1997, the museum is officially known as the Museum of Mataró .